The March 21 kickoff in Times Square provided an opportunity to announce the Great American Cleanup in Keep America Beautiful’s “backyard” and it provided the ideal platform to announce New York City’s anti-litter campaign “STOMP OUT LITTER,” a series of public service print and television ads featuring the percussion group STOMP. Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps Desiree Sayle presented the President’s Volunteer Service Award to two deserving recipients, including a 105-year-old Queen’s resident. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presided over the event, which featured a live performance by STOMP and the simultaneous broadcast of the event on Times Square’s multi-media electronic billboards. Close to 100 flag-waving local schoolchildren participated, as did stage actor and television personality Tony Danza. While these two kickoff events provided great hope, encouragement and excitement
to the citizens of Biloxi and New York City, the power of the Great American Cleanup as a mobilizing force of volunteerism in action was evidenced by the more than 2 million volunteers who, from March 1 through May 31, fanned out across the nation to clean up, green up, fix up and beautify their communities. And they produced remarkable results. Thanks to our volunteers’ efforts, more than 37 million PET bottles and more than 2.5 million scrap tires were diverted from the waste stream during the Great American Cleanup in 2006. These record-setting results were emblematic of the scale of KAB’s national grassroots effort. “Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup doesn’t simply conduct clean-ups,” (Clockwise, from left) New York City’s Great American Cleanup kickoff in Times Square was a multi-media extravaganza. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (top, right) introduced New York City’s anti-litter campaign, and Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps Desiree Sayle presented President’s Volunteer Service Awards. (Photos by Tom Johnson, CameraOne) (Opposite page) Keep Cincinnati Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup produced significant results in this Cincinnati neighborhood. (Photo courtesy of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful)
said Gail Cunningham, senior vice president of Keep America Beautiful and managing director of the Great American Cleanup. “In fact, the Great American Cleanup is involved in every aspect of preserving and improving the environment by means of promoting recycling, restoration, beautification and educational initiatives.” The volunteers, who removed more than 228 million pounds of litter and debris using 4 million GLAD ForceFlex® Trash Bags, the “Official Trash Bag” of the Great American Cleanup, collected 10 percent more litter and debris than the record set in 2005. They also recorded more than 7.5 million volunteer hours, saving local government agencies $129 million in estimated wages. This contribution translates into a significant lowering of the financial and organizational burden of waste removal on local and state governments.
Other results highlights included: n 10,200 illegal dump sites cleaned, which is more than double the number of sites cleaned in 2005 n 168,000 miles of streets, roads and high- ways cleaned and beautified, approximately equal to seven times around the earth n 3,900 miles of hiking, biking and nature trails cleaned, equivalent to a trail stretching from Key West to Seattle n 38.5 million pounds of aluminum and steel recycled, an 80 percent increase over 2005’s total n 4.8 million pounds of electronics recycled, a 32 percent increase over 2005’s total n 5.4 million plants, flowers and bulbs planted, a 29 percent increase over 2005’s total n 65,400 acres of parks/public lands cleaned, a 28 percent increase over 2005’s total The Great American Cleanup conducts approximately 30,000 events in over 15,000 communities, focusing on “reduce, reuse, recycle” programs, beautification initiatives, and hands-on experiential education. “The results the volunteers post during the Great American Cleanup continue to astound,” said G. Raymond Empson, president of Keep America Beautiful. “Because of this effort, our participating organizations are bringing a sense of ownership and pride to their communities, making them safer, cleaner and more economically viable.”
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